The House Next Door (7 page)

“What's the plan?” Carrie asked.

Alyssa took a deep breath and looked at her friends.
“Amanda and I are going outside,” she replied. “Everyone else stay here with Anne.”

“You're going out into the dark?” Elena asked.

“Yes,” Alyssa said. “We need to go out, and maybe even into that old house, to find Paul and Steve. And then we're going to bring them back here and
kill
them!”

Anne laughed under her breath, though she knew her distraught sister was only half joking. She certainly didn't want to be Steve or Paul when Alyssa finally found them.

Alyssa and Amanda stepped off of the security of their back porch and into the black night. They switched on their flashlights and scanned the field for any signs of Paul and Steve. The grass was motionless. Alyssa and Amanda darted their flashlights in all directions. Not a movement. Not a sound. Alyssa followed her sister's gaze to the second floor window of their own home. The faint glow reminded Alyssa that their parents would soon ring in the New Year. And then it would time for everyone to leave.

“We have to hurry,” Amanda said. “And, as much as I hate to admit it, I think we should turn off our flashlights until we reach the house.” She knew her sister was
nervous outside in the dark, but she also didn't want any of the adults to spot the beams of their flashlights from the upstairs windows.

Alyssa nodded and grabbed her sister's hand. Slowly, they each took a step toward the house next door. Without their flashlights, Alyssa and Amanda shuffled along an old beaten, cobbled pathway that led to the meadow. Fallen leaves squished under their feet with each step.

As they continued in the direction of the silhouetted house, both sisters suddenly stopped dead in their tracks. The grass and branches rustled behind them.

“Did you hear that?” Alyssa asked Amanda urgently.

They spun around to see stalks of grass shaking and quivering in front of them. Something was following them. Alyssa was paralyzed with fear. But, Amanda took a step forward to investigate. Steadily, Amanda switched her flashlight back on and focused the beam of light on the moving grass. There was definitely something in there. Step by step, she moved closer. When she reached the rustling grass, she leaned forward to get a better view. The flashlight trembled in her hand.

“Be careful!” Alyssa whispered.

“I know!” Amanda replied. She crouched down and parted the grass with her hands. Accompanied by a loud, piercing
caw
, a large shiny black wing skimmed her face. Amanda screamed just as loudly as the crow and fell backward onto the ground. The crow sprung from its hiding spot on the ground and flapped its way upward, taking flight into the night sky. Amanda let out another terrified wail, followed by a whimper.

“It was just a bird,” Alyssa told her, sitting beside her in the grass. The two sisters were silent, hoping that no one at the adult party had heard the scream. Then Alyssa noticed Amanda's bloody fingers, which were tightly holding the flashlight. Amanda flashed the light on her hand and then the stinging area on her leg to reveal a small scrape. She must have gotten the scrape when she fell backward and then her hand brushed against it. A fine line of blood trickled from the wound and down into her shoe.

Alyssa hated the sight of blood. She felt her stomach turn over. Feeling queasy, she positioned herself into a squat and put her head between her knees. She forced herself to take a few deep breaths and waited for the nausea to pass.

“What happened?” she asked Amanda. “Why are you bleeding?”

“I think I stepped on a twig. It must've snapped and scraped my leg,” Amanda explained.

“Do you want to keep going?” Alyssa asked hopefully. Now the idea of going there on her own made her feel dizzy too.

“No big deal.” Amanda pulled her sleeve over her hand, and wiped the dirt and blood from her leg, applying pressure to her scraped skin to stop the bleeding. When it had stopped, she stood up and brushed the muck and leaves from her skirt. “Let's go.”

The girls continued through the meadow, flashlights off. With each careful, soft step they moved closer to the house. It was a deafeningly silent night, and the only sound the girls heard was the swishing of grass brushing against their legs. But, along with each rustling footstep, they could hear hushed voices. Warnings.

Neither girl said anything until Alyssa finally squealed and turned angrily toward Amanda.

“Why did you pinch me?” Alyssa asked.

“Because I can hear you whispering,” Amanda replied. “You're freaking me out!”

“I haven't said anything!” Alyssa exclaimed.

“What do you mean?” Amanda asked. “I heard you say, ‘Stay away!' ”

“Amanda,” Alyssa replied, “it wasn't me. But I heard it too.”

“Well,” Amanda continued, “if it wasn't you, then who was it?”

The girls stopped. They had made it too far to turn around now. Alyssa switched on her flashlight and frantically swung the beam around. The beams only showed the emptiness that surrounded them though. They were completely alone.

“I think we should head home,” Amanda told her sister. “We can just fess up to our parents, and they can deal with Paul and Steve.” Alyssa hesitated for a second. She also wanted to return, and Amanda's idea wasn't a bad one, but why should their parents' party be ruined too and their parents' trust in them be shattered because of Paul and Steve?

“The voices we're hearing are just Paul and Steve playing a trick on us,” Alyssa replied reluctantly. “Come on. The sooner we find them, the sooner we can go home.”

They continued walking, turning their flashlights on periodically to scan the area ahead for Paul and Steve. Every so often, Alyssa would call out each boy's name. But she didn't receive any response. They only heard the quiet whispers drifting through the still night. They squeezed each other's hands with each passing warning. They were both trying to convince themselves it was simply their minds playing tricks on them, scaring themselves witless. That the stress of the situation was getting to them. But how could they both be hearing the same thing?

They stopped when they finally reached the steps leading up to the house's front porch. For all the years they lived next door, this was actually the closest they had ever been to it. And now that they were so close, they took a moment to examine all its eccentricities. The house was sturdier than Alyssa expected—she always thought the wooden shingles looked flimsy, but now that she was so near them, she could see the walls beneath the shingles were thick and solid. The paint had long since cracked and had been worn down by years of stormy weather and hot summer days. Rusty nails poked through the sagging floorboards of the porch.

Amanda was about to take a step forward when Alyssa squeezed her hand and jerked her back. Even though the thick walls of the house and solid oak door supported the house's foundation, the porch hadn't held up as well. The wood planks were rotting and decayed.

“Follow me,” Alyssa instructed. “You're going to go right through if you're not careful!”

Alyssa let go of Amanda's hand and placed her foot on the first step. And, with the poise and practice of a ballet dancer, she swiftly leaped to the top, gingerly stepping on each stair along the way.

“Now, walk in my steps,” Alyssa told Amanda. “And hold on to the handrail.”

Amanda looked warily at her sister.

“I don't think I can do that!” she replied. “But don't move. I'll try.”

Amanda put some weight on the first step, and just as she had expected, a loud cracking sound shot through the air. Amanda grabbed hold of the iron handrail and tried the second step. It creaked beneath her foot, but supported her. She followed in her sister's footsteps until she also reached the top. Together, they walked toward the door. Suddenly, Amanda felt cobwebs on her arms
and hands. She had walked through a giant spider web. Panicking, she began peeling the strands of the web away from her face and arms. “They're all over me!” she screamed. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't seem to wipe all the strands of web from her.

“Stop it!” Alyssa demanded. She was standing before the heavy front door. She studied the ornately carved detail in the wood. There were engraved designs and sketched pictures of birds, rabbits, and other wildlife. But there was also something that looked like a word or name carved into the wood. She traced it with her finger. It looked like someone had scratched it away, and she couldn't make out what it had once said. She placed her hand on the brass doorknob, expecting to have to shove the solid door open, but to her surprise, it was already ajar.
Paul and Steve,
she thought. With a slight nudge, it swung open. Amanda had finally managed to free herself from the web, and, together, Amanda and Alyssa walked through the door and into the house.

As soon as Alyssa entered the foyer her cheeks burned with anger.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded.

Paul and Steve stood before them, illuminated in
the beams of their flashlights.

“Come on,” Paul said. “Don't be mad! We just wanted to check out the house. It's awesome, isn't it?”

For a moment, Alyssa was too curious to yell at the boys. Instead, she looked around at the foyer. It was filled with unfamiliar trinkets from many years ago. Large, tarnished bells hung on the wall. She quickly figured that they were once used on a horse's harness before someone had turned them into a decoration. An old box, hanging on the opposite wall, displayed a collection of pewter spoons. And she spotted what looked like old brass or copper buttons on the foyer table. Pushing a feeling of dread out of her mind, she tried to focus on Paul and Steve.

It was hard though because the house fascinated her—it was like she had stepped into a museum. They were all standing in a large square alcove that opened up into a living room with a few old, dusty armchairs and tables. Alyssa walked over to a soot-covered fireplace in the far corner. She peeked around that corner and into an adjacent room. It had to be the kitchen, judging from the dusty, outdated appliances she saw as she moved the beam of her flashlight around the room.
A large staircase was to the left, winding up to the floor above them. Old moth-eaten rugs covered the floors. Faded black-and-white-toned photographs sat framed on the tables.

Alyssa scanned the relics in the room until she stopped at the tall, ticking grandfather clock. It was by far the most stately piece of furniture in the room. Alyssa tilted her head and looked at it pointedly. It seemed to bring life into the otherwise lifeless house. Watching the small hand go around, she thought how remarkable it was that the old thing still worked after all these years. And then she noticed the time.

“It's eleven fifteen!” Alyssa announced. “We have to leave
now
!”

Alyssa turned to leave with Amanda on her heels. Amanda caught Paul's eye. “It's really not cool that you left. If our parents find out that we're here, we'll be grounded forever. If we're grounded, you two are going down with us.”

“Relax,” Paul replied. “No one will ever know we were gone.”

“Famous last words,” replied Alyssa.

“It's cool,” Steve said, turning to Paul. “This old
house is spooky-looking, but it's actually kind of boring.”

Alyssa relaxed for the first time since she'd left the safety of her own party. Everyone was finally on the same page. It was time to go. They headed for the door.

“Hey.” They heard an unfamiliar voice calling from behind them. “Leaving so soon?”

All four kids spun around in shock. Alyssa's heart was pounding so forcefully that she felt like it could drop out of her chest and right down into her stomach.

Two boys about their age stood before them. Alyssa and Amanda had never seen them before. They seemed to have just . . . appeared.